The Faerie Queene (The English poets) (The great works) (Everyman)

by Edmund Spenser

C O'Donnell (Editor), Thomas Roche (Editor), Thomas P. Roche (Editor), and C Patrick O'Donnell (Editor)

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Book cover for The Faerie Queene

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The Faerie Queene was the first epic in English and one of the most influential poems in the language for later poets from Milton to Tennyson. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly united medieval romance and renaissance epic to expound the glory of the Virgin Queen. The poem recounts the quests of knights including Sir Guyon, Knight of Constance, who resists temptation, and Artegall, Knight of Justice, whose story alludes to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Composed as an overt moral and political allegory, The Faerie Queene, with its dramatic episodes of chivalry, pageantry and courtly love, is also a supreme work of atmosphere, colour and sensuous description.
  • ISBN10 0140422072
  • ISBN13 9780140422078
  • Publish Date 29 June 1978 (first published 1 May 1958)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
  • Imprint Penguin Classics